Bohemian 'rito with Guac

It’s half past two in the morning at the Mission Hills Santana’s. A line of starving drunks talk loudly about their karaoke conquests at Lamplighter. Dapper locals mill around the salsa bar, texting. Sulky debutantes bitch about too much sour cream. It’s a classic Santana’s Saturday.

“Bohemian Rhapsody” comes over the jukebox. A few patrons take notice and mutter a lyric or two between mouthfuls of carne asada fries. “Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?” Burritos fly out of the kitchen. More lyrics are mumbled. “Because I’m easy come, easy go. Little high, little low.”

Everything clicks. Rolled tacos and chicken tortas are temporarily forgotten. Hazy-eyed patrons with salsa red grins leap up on chairs, raise a poetic hand to the heavens, and sing. “Mama! Life has just begun! But now I’ve gone and thrown it all away!”

Strangers embrace. Guacamole high-fives make their rounds. A call and response chorus erupts. “Scaramouche! Scaramouche! Will you do the fandango?”

A pea-coated patron struts across the restaurant howling into a California ‘rito microphone. “Beezlebub has the devil put aside for me! For ME! FOR MEEEEEE!”

The guitar solo hits and everyone goes ape tits. The cooks let tortillas burn in order to channel epic solos through spatulas. A few can’t take it and vanish entirely in a cilantro-scented flash of spontaneous combustion.

Let's be fair SDaniels. Creative non-fiction? It's mostly true, anyway. :-) Pete - did notice a few cellphone vids being taken. Apparently not on youtube yet. I'm joining Adam tonight for Drunk Poets Society and will def encourage him to get Stella out of her funk and back on the blog!

Hmmmm....My apologies then Origami. I thought SD knew it was fiction. I assume everything on these blogs is true unless specifically stated otherwise. Obviously SOME things are overly exaggerated but I digress. ;-D Great blog either way Origami.

I was going to post earlier that everyone has had a Bohemian Rhapsody story, somewhere, sometime, when the song started and everyone's ears perked up and someone took the lead and before you know it you've assumed your role:

Yes, it's a book, but the link I posted should have been to the telly show coming up on Sundance. I like that the book is a collection of essays, though, and would like to check it out, too. Looks like Alibris has it for $4.44. Can't beat that ;)

Btw, the title of this blog should read "Bizarre tales..." Or should it? No one has EVER noticed that I spell the word as "wierd" instead of "weird." Two reasons: 1. "wierd" is a viable alternate spelling, and 2. I like the sense of the uncanny it somehow creates when you reverse the "i" and the "e"...;)

Re: #10- Yes, Pike and another co-hort definitely had Small Bar rockin' out to some Queen, though in retrospect, it could have easily been We Are the Champions. It was late when it all went down (though isn't that usually the case?) so my memory of that evening is slightly hazy. The goal was to find a song that would unite an entire bar of strangers, and the one thing I remember about that night is that it clearly did. I think Queen just has that strange, ethereal effect on people whether you know the drunk frat boy sitting next to you or the hot female at the other end of the bar is your best friend. Either way, good times were in abundance that evening just as it appears it was for you at Santana's.